Expert Opinion

For a city that claims the most important art fair in the Americas, Miami doesn’t exactly impress when it comes to bona fide art consultants. Flavia Masetto, an Argentina native with a knack for curating, plans to increase the pool. From Buenos Aires—though she’s quick to note that she doesn’t only deal in Latin American art—Masetto recently launched a Miami branch of her independent fine art consulting firm, Flavia Masetto Fine Arts, to cater to Floridians, as well as New Yorkers and Europeans that visit our shores year-round.

“Miami is in the midst of a major real-estate boom, and those homeowners need something to hang on their walls,” says Masetto. “This new wave of residents doesn’t just want a condo. They want a lifestyle.”

That’s where she comes in. After years of attending Art Basel, Masetto noticed the locals’ haphazard habits of building art collections. The majority relied on word of mouth and tips from gallerists and museum directors, who Masetto says are too busy to dedicate serious attention to these matters. “There’s definitely a science to the whole thing,” she says. “It’s about reflecting the collector’s personality, soul and, sometimes, wit. In many ways, the collector becomes an artist, too.”

The art world comes easily to Masetto, who grew up in the ’70s surrounded by her mother’s canvases depicting political realism. She studied painting with Argentine master Carlos Canas and art history at the University of Buenos Aires. A stint in hedge funds exposed her to the aggressive purchasing power of wealthy collectors, so she decided to combine her well-heeled network and art knowledge and switch career trajectories.

“Like anything, it takes years to build relationships for access to the best work,” says Masetto, who takes on a range of budgets and levels of collecting experience. “There’s great art in every category, as long as you have a good eye.”

Masetto’s Hots
Argentine artist Leon Ferrari, minimalism, the return of figuration and painting, collections with character